K.4.f.5.

SEBASTIANO FESTA AND PHILIPPE VERDELOT: two madrigals; after 1542. Written on the blank final leaves of the four printed part-books of Benedictus Appenzeller, Superius (Contratenor) (Tenor) (Bassus) Des chansons a quattre parties (Anuers: Henry Loys & Iehan de Buys, 1542) in a contemporary hand. The first piece, ‘O passi sparsi’ by Sebastian Festa, is written on ff. 27v-28 of each volume, which have been printed with blank staves. It is written with lozenge-shaped notes, in imitation of the printed notes. For the second piece, ‘Fedele et bel cagnuolo’ by Philippe Verdelot (on f. 28v, and not here attributed), the scribe has drawn the staves himself, and uses round notes. ‘O passi sparsi’ (words by Petrarch) was printed (with minor differences) in Canzoni frottole et capitoli ... Libro I. De la Croce (Rome: G. G. Pasoti et V. Dorico, 1526); for a modern edition, see J. Haar, ed., Chanson & Madrigal, 1480-1530 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964), pp. 229-34. ‘Fedele et bel cagnuolo’ (words anonymous) was printed in Libro primo de la fortuna A (Venezia: Giunta?, [c.1530]), of which only the Alto part-book survives, and is also found in Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS Q21; for a modern edition, see A.-M. Bragard, Étude bio-bibliographique sur Philippe Verdelot, musicien français de la renaissance (Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique, 1963). This set of part-books was previously the second item in a set of bound volumes comprising K.4.g.2., K.4.f.5., K.4.g.1., a fourth item not in the British Library, K.4.g.3. and K.4.d.16. Each book is numbered ‘Li.1.’, etc., at the top of every folio, in the same hand as these musical additions. The name ‘Mercurius’ is written on the title page of each part of K.4.g.2., and the Bassus part of the same includes a flyleaf bearing the names ‘Ambrosa Bemond de Sion’ (in a sixteenth-century hand) and ‘Anthony Dixson, 1641’. Purchased from Quaritch, Apr. 1911.

4 vols. Each ff. 28. 160 x 201mm.